French producer Kousto, now based in London, has built his sound around house music with a strong sense of melody and a taste for sounds that travel beyond the usual club references. Drawing on live instrumentation, samples and memories of the South of France, his productions often sit somewhere between deep house and more cinematic territory. On After Elsewhere, his four-track EP for Egoplanet, he opens up that palette a little further. Drums, keyboards and analogue textures shape the arrangements, but the tracks are given room to breathe rather than being locked into a single formula.

“Channel 16” sets things in motion with a steady groove, while “Eye Contact” pulls back and lets its melodic details come through. The focus track, “Out of Range”, takes a more spacious approach, balancing a measured rhythm with a sense of openness. Closing track “Slows” drops the pace to a gentle 90 BPM, bringing the EP to a more reflective end. Across the four pieces, Kousto moves between dancefloor momentum and quieter listening without making too much of the distinction. With After Elsewhere, he keeps that connection to the club, while leaving enough space for the music to drift elsewhere. Available via Bandcamp.

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Dennis McFarlane, known across electronic music as dego, remains an essential force in UK club history. As a co-founder of 4Hero and leader of the 2000Black collective, his work shaped West London's broken beat landscape. Four years after his LP Love Was Not Your Goal, he returns to his own imprint with a three-track EP titled Power. Written and produced alongside frequent creative partner Mr Mensah, the project delivers the unmistakable identity of the label. Shantéh Fuller takes the lead vocals on the title track, bringing a soulful vocal presence to its dancefloor-ready groove. “4 Seasons In A Day” shifts towards mid-tempo house and boogie, while “Embassy Eve” completes the set. Three carefully shaped tracks, rooted in the musical approach that has kept 2000Black moving for decades. Available on vinyl, for the collectors.

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South London producer Ben Hauke’s discography moves between house, UK garage and broken beat, with groove as the common thread. Beyond running his own imprint and contributing live sound effects to King Krule's band, his previous releases on labels like Touching Bass and CoOp Presents highlighted a knack for raw groove. He now returns to his own WOOP Records with his latest full-length, Future Bruk. The ten-track album acts as a deliberate counter-reaction to broken beat's softer, jazzier tropes. Taking a nod from Mark Mac's Vintage Bruk, Hauke opts to strip away the smooth polish. Instead, he steers the genre into darker territory, incorporating electro, two-step, and unrefined club energy.

The album emerged from a prolific late-2025 studio run, where Hauke whittled twenty-five initial ideas down to ten tight compositions. "FYS" focuses purely on raw drum-and-bass mechanics, while "SPOOOOKY" brings in vocalist Sheiva for a haunting backdrop. On "No Regulation," Nigerian artist Meso-IX injects a dark yet hopeful energy into the mix. Hauke also finds humor in genre categorization on "No Bruk On Splice," poking fun at sample libraries that overlook the style. Meanwhile, cuts like "Tuned Into Happy" channel his London upbringing, capturing moments where youthful optimism met city grit. Engineered equally for headphones and club sound systems, Future Bruk gives the genre jolt forward to the darker days ahead. Available on vinyl.

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Brooklyn-born, South East London-based Goya Gumbani has a way of making rap feel like a conversation that can wander wherever it needs to go. His writing moves between personal reflections, quick observations and loose streams of thought, often finding its shape around jazz-informed production. After Warlord of the Weejuns [Ghostly International, 2025], he returns with Bean Pie, a five-track EP released once again by Ghostly International. The ingredients come from different moments in time, but they settle into place without much fuss. Joe Armon-Jones, Franky Bones, Blk Deco and Velvetian Sky handle production across the record, giving Gumbani room to shift gears. The artist intentionally pushes the tempo here, trading pure introspection for physical movement and rhythmic bounce.

The change is clear on “Hold It Up” and “Come or GO”, where Gumbani slips through rapid-fire verses over crisp drums and sliding organ lines. On “Shouldn’t Be”, his exchange with longtime collaborator Joe Armon-Jones feels more exposed, the beat leaving space for lines about cutting ties and moving carefully. The EP’s loose construction comes together most clearly on “PrettyLady, WYA”, inspired by a trip to Marseille and the fleeting sight of someone in a club. SALIMATA adds vocals, Velvetian Sky co-produces, and Marc-Antoine Bianco brings keys and bass to the track. Each song feels like a small scene rather than part of a tightly plotted story. That’s the point of Bean Pie: different experiences, moods and half-formed ideas sharing the same space, until they become something that makes sense on its own terms. Available via Bandcamp.

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Glasgow label 12th Isle has spent years curating esoteric vinyl from the margins of club culture. For their latest release, the imprint welcomes Tokyo producer Shota Ikawa, operating as Igaxx. After a series of split releases and dancefloor focused EPs over the last decade, he finally steps forward with his debut full-length project, New Lights. The eight-track offering sits right between late-night dancefloors and home listening sessions. Recording with multi-tracked hardware synths from the 1990s and 2000s, Ikawa lets analog chance guide his studio process.

The sound draws clear inspiration from vintage leftfield electronics like Elektrolux and Rising High. Downtempo rhythms merge with weightless ambient textures, carrying a quiet sense of humor and subtle and mesmerizing detail. Instead of locking into rigid patterns, the hardware arrangements drift and breathe through live performance variations. Hints of West Coast psychedelia and early UK chillout pulse gently beneath warm analogue house foundations. New Lights brings an atmosphere of its own, where patience and unpredictable vintage hardware create a truly immersive listening space. Available on vinyl.

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Asa Tone bring together Melati ESP, Tristan Arp and Kaazi, three artists whose work often sits somewhere between electronic composition, experimental sound and rhythm. Their debut, Temporary Music [Leaving Records, 2020], introduced a shared approach built around unusual textures and sounds that seem to shift shape as you listen. Now, the group joins the incredible Music From Memory catalog with their album Mutualkind. Written between Indonesia, Mexico City, Berlin and New York, the album grew through remote exchanges, live sessions and ideas passed between its members. In this project we don’t hear a simple layering their separate styles, instead the trio looks for ways to make them interact.

The album’s eleven tracks shift between pieces captured live in one take and others assembled over time. “Second Language” and “Watertalk” retain the immediacy of a shared performance, while “Jalur-Jalur” and “In Vanishing Landscapes” explore how patterns can stretch, break apart and find new shapes. During the final sessions in Indonesia, Balinese percussionist Putu Septa added kendang to two tracks, bringing another rhythmic tradition into the mix. Asa Tone continue to explore how sound can grow from a particular place without being tied to it. On Mutualkind, that idea takes on a more collective form, but it doesn’t erase identities. It lets them meet, overlap and briefly speak the same language. Available on vinyl.

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Telemakus approaches jazz as something to take apart, reshape and put back together. The California-born, Los Angeles-based producer, pianist and composer first drew our attention with The New Heritage [Radio Juicy, 2021], a debut that connected jazz harmony with hip-hop production and electronic textures. His influences range from Herbie Hancock and Alice Coltrane to J Dilla, and that mix of musical languages carries into Eight Ring Revival, released by Good Problem Studios. Here, Telemakus handles the writing, playing, arranging and engineering, but leaves plenty of space for collaborators to come and showcase their unmistakable class. Flying Lotus, Karriem Riggins, Mndsgn, Liv.e, Sparklmami and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson are among the intergalactic stars joining him.

But rather than feeling like a guest-heavy showcase, the album comes together through a series of distinct musical exchanges. Swarvy co-writes and co-produces “Five Hands Pt. 1”, Mndsgn joins Telemakus on “Revival”, and Karriem Riggins helps shape “By Any Feet Necessary” and “2054”. The arrangements move between downbeat passages, loose jazz playing and electronic details, with each contribution folded into the larger composition. That balance between control and spontaneity has been central to Telemakus’s work, and Eight Ring Revival pushes it further by bringing a broad circle of musicians into his process. Available on vinyl, this edition also includes a printed inner sleeve and double-sided poster, with the record pressed using recyclable PET plastic. Beyond that, this is one of the best albums we’ve heard during 2026. World class.

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Archival label Habibi Funk Records is opening another window into Lebanon's musical vault. Their new compilation, Habibi Funk 035: Beirut City Pop, collects ten elusive recordings from Beirut's cassette scene in the late 1970s and 1980s. Featuring Various Artists like Andromeda, Force, Games, and Stephanie Stephanou, the project highlights a close-knit community orbiting Ziad Rahbani’s Bypass Studio and Studio Farah. Due to the civil war splitting the city into isolated pockets, many of these tracks were never widely distributed. Instead, they circulated on hand-copied tapes, sometimes in runs of twenty or fewer, passed between friends and fellow players.

Despite the difficult backdrop, the music on Beirut City Pop radiates a light, buoyant energy akin to Japanese city pop. The tracklist glides through disco, bossa nova, synth-pop, and AOR with effortless ease. Offerings such as Stephanou’s "You Turn Me On" and Andromeda’s "Bossa Blue" capture musicians leaning into warmth, groove, and escapism. These recovered tapes offer a rare glimpse of creative freedom and camaraderie that outlasted the turmoil around them. Ultimately, Beirut City Pop stands as a soulful tribute to an enduring musical community. Available on vinyl.

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Haitian-Canadian artist Gayance just unveiled her sophomore project. After making serious waves with her 2023 Polaris-nominated debut Mascarade (Rhythm Section, 2023) the Montreal-born and Lisbon-based DJ and producer teams up with Tru Thoughts for this project. Loosely written for 9 years, she has collected stories from moving between cities like Brussels, Amsterdam, and different spots in Brazil. Channeling those experiences into roaming, the album traces a path of self-affirmation through a global club lens. The record serves as a sonic travelogue, deeply rooted in her Haitian heritage while reflecting the emotional highs and lows of an artist constantly in transit.

The tracklist naturally documents that evolution. Songs like "Better For My Heart," featuring Judith Little D, offer an anthem of emotional purging built on house and gospel influences. Other cuts like "Kind Silence" find power in withdrawal, while "GOSSIP" takes an unfiltered look at toxic cycles. The music also leans into her cultural roots on "Podjab," where she teams up with Waahli to channel the resistance of Haitian Mizik Rasin. The project ultimately wraps with "Agua," featuring NARCY & De.Ville, which advocates for somatic healing and inner clarity. roaming balances memory, movement, and raw honesty on the dancefloor. Available on vinyl.

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For us Space Ghost’s music, has always offered a way to step outside the everyday chaos. The Oakland-based producer returns with a record that touches us deep. Titled perfectly as Back From Reality, the project is his first solo LP since Private Paradise (Pacific Rhythm, 2022). The album is inspired in the world of late-’90s and early-2000s video games like Spyro, Crash Bandicoot and Ape Escape, with their menu screens, virtual landscapes. Written over five years, the album grew from Space Ghost’s routine of finishing his day job and returning home to make music, turning that time into a space of his own. Released on his own Peace World Records, the feeling of the whole project logs us off again.

The eleven tracks blend ambient, downtempo and deep house rhythms. Cuts like “System Reset” an “VGM” imagine alternative PS2 startup and stage selection screens. Elsewhere, “Sugar Cube” and the title track drift through the kind of empty, late-night spaces that inspired the record’s cover, photographed by Space Ghost around Oakland’s port. There’s a personal side to this nostalgia, too. The producer has described driving around the city after work to test his new tracks, listening for whether their emotional pull survives outside the studio. Across Back From Reality, the connection between tracks create a quiet space for listeners to get lost. Amid global worries, the album offers a needed pause to simply breathe. We’ll keep stepping back with this one for years to come. Available on vinyl, yes, yes.

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Dresden producer DJ Pirna has been building his own version of club music for years, with a catalogue that moves through funk, hip-hop, house, electro and what can be defined as “Ghettoboomsound.” Releases such as Prehistoric Passion (2022) and It Smells Like Bootyhole on Mars... Bring Me Back to Earth! (2024) show a taste for strange titles, chopped-up samples and rhythms that rarely stay in one lane. On The Day I Found Out That My Cat Only Has One Life, released by Former City Records, he takes that playful approach into album territory. Fourteen tracks were selected from a reported 122 compositions, giving the record the feel of a deliberately edited collection rather than a maximalist dump of ideas.

The story running through the album centres on Eric, whose childhood memories of music, Lego and snacks take an unexpected turn when a tractor ends the life of his cat. It is an odd premise, but DJ Pirna treats it as a loose thread rather than something that needs to dominate the music. “Do I Do”, featuring Elis Dao, “Hacerlo Mal” with Giu Azul, and “The Vibe” with Esther D bring different voices into the mix, while tracks like “Mo Funk” and “Please Dance With Me It Is Philantrophy” keep the focus on the groove. The result sits between a club cuts record and a beat tape, with the narrative giving the tracks a little more room for our imagination. Former City Records, DJ Pirna’s home base in Dresden, is always the perfect place for truly good club records that without taking itself too seriously. Available on vinyl.

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Berlin-based imprint Ascension on Wax is back with a new offering. Co-founder and producer Lavan returns to his own platform for their sixth release. Alongside his partner Max Logsdail, he has built a catalog dedicated to the intersection of underground house and soulful rhythms. Now, he steps into the studio to deliver the Soul Baby EP, offering a twenty-five-minute dive into rolling grooves and jazz-tinged textures. It serves as a direct reflection of the warmth that defines the label. By balancing classic house foundations with a clear UK influence, Lavan crafts a record aimed squarely at the soul.

The four-track package covers a variety of club moods. The title cut leads the charge, using swinging drums and vocal samples to build a psychedelic atmosphere. From there, the music moves toward Latin jazz territory on "Harmonizm." This track pairs Afrobeat-inspired percussion with a steady synth arrangement. Diving deeper, "Zoning" layers cinematic chords over a patient pocket. To close out the session, K15 provides a remix of the latter tune. He injects his futuristic style, bringing broken-beat rhythms and Rhodes keys into the mix. Ultimately, Soul Baby EP operates as music that easily transitions from a DJ bag to a living-room turntable. Available on vinyl.

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The connection between DFRA & Nick Weaver flourished in Buenos Aires, first through collaborations on DFRA’s house productions and eventually through a shared album. Colombian-born and based in Buenos Aires, DFRA has been developing a meeting point between jazz and house, with live piano, trumpet, saxophone and guitar appearing alongside the grooves. Weaver brings a different angle, rooted in Seattle hip hop and a more conversational approach to writing. On Beautiful Place, released by Silver Walker Recordings, those worlds meet in a band setting, with DFRA’s musicians playing everything live. The result gives Weaver’s observations about city life plenty of room to breathe.

There is a tension at the centre of the eight tracks: Buenos Aires can feel overwhelming, but it is also where this record came together. Weaver writes about looking for some peace within that movement, while DFRA’s arrangements keep the music grounded in jazz, soul, house and hip hop. “Circle”, “Credits” and “Desde mi balcón” each approach that idea from a slightly different direction, with the instrumental side never simply sitting behind the vocals. DFRA had already worked with Weaver on the 2025 release LTDBLBL019, where their chemistry was more directly framed through house music. Here, on Beautiful Place, they stretch that connection into something more personal and song-focused.

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For some time I had hoped to release a full body of work from Tito. Ever since I heard him at Mr. Bean's Music Club, and revisited records that started appearing around 2018, it felt clear that there was a particular sensitivity behind the music - curious, rhythmic, spacious, unpredictable. Mostly in the sense that his references and musical background naturally pull from many places at once. When the idea of releasing Plane Of Existence on vinyl started becoming real, it immediately made sense for O Sótão Records.

Based in Porto, Tito Romão first built his path as a drummer, later expanding into composition and production through different instruments and collaborations. While drums are his main instrument, he also studied cello and taught piano for a short period. Later he developed his Arctween project, DJing, and gradually shaping his own language under a new moniker. From Forbidden Cuts in 2018 to Dance Of The Spheres via Discotexas in 2020, his catalogue has slowly traced a path between groove-based experimentation and more immersive sound design.

The years that followed brought even more movement. Together with Gazpa, a longtime friend from skateboarding days, he released Gaztween's I through Jazzego Records in 2020, later followed by II in 2025. Around the same period he was also producing Ping Pong, eventually released in 2024 through Jorge Caiado's Mad Luv Records. For a couple of years he has held a Saturday residency at the iconic Mr. Bean's, still playing regularly with the house band and moving freely between instruments.

A lot of that openness leaks into Plane Of Existence. Tito started producing the album during 2024, often late after work, without looking for a clear destination. By 2025 the concept slowly revealed itself. The record became an ode to Karlheinz Stockhausen, Manuel Göttsching, and to the modern ambient scene, while carrying traces of jazz, hip-hop and dub throughout its structure.

The album feels minimalistic and experimental, sometimes less harmonic, intentionally leaving room for texture, repetition and movement. His tight and vintage sounding percussion work mixes perfectly with spatial sounds and subtle vibrations drift through ambient, downtempo and dub territories, creating something immersive but still warm and human. It's music that allows space. For meditation, for focus, for getting slightly lost in the sequence of sounds. Saturated at times, sparse at others, but carefully balanced.

Plane Of Existence unfolds slowly, sometimes sounding like a beattape, carrying the feeling of someone patiently shaping ideas over time, trusting atmosphere as much as rhythm. For me, it's also one of the clearest representations yet of Tito's musical identity. The record is available on vinyl via O Sótão Records.

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Zurich brothers Okvsho, Christoph and Georg Kiss, have spent the past few years finding their own space between beat-making, hip-hop, electronic music and modern jazz. Earlier releases such as Orange Wine and Traphouse Jazz established that blend, while A Place Between Us pushed the duo further into live instrumentation and improvisation. Their work has also grown into a full live setup, with the Okvsho +experience project built around the idea of treating jazz as dance music. On Frozen Flashes, released by their own Current Moves label, the studio becomes another instrument. Sessions in Zurich and London started with musicians playing together, with rhythms, textures and loose ideas later sampled, cut and reshaped into nine tracks.

That process leaves plenty of room for things to happen by accident. “Pluto” brings in Azekel, while “sl.wm.ed.” joins FloFilz and Melodiesinfonie, and Tenderlonious appears on “Roottree”. There are also contributions from Hadel, alongside a wider group of musicians who help turn the duo’s sketches into something more detailed. The record’s title fits the method: a small musical event can pass in seconds, yet still contain the seed of a whole track. Frozen Flashes works from that tension between playing and editing, keeping the human unpredictability of a session while giving each moment a clear place in the finished album. Available on vinyl.

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The idea for Ships Of The Pharaohs started as a live extension of Last Nubian’s music, put together for a Touching Bass showcase at We Out Here festival in 2023. It quickly became its own thing, with vocalist Achanté, keys player Goldbar and bassist Dougan joining Last Nubian to shape a sound that moves between jazz, soul, bossa nova and UK club music. Last Nubian’s own work has followed a similar path, with releases on CoOp Presents, Eglo Records and Touching Bass. On Part 1, released by First Word Records, that background meets a more open-ended band format. The seven tracks were developed through sessions in a Brixton flat before being finished at Total Refreshment Centre.

There’s plenty going on, but the EP never feels like a genre exercise. “Sun Is Rising” sets the pace with Berlin singer Red Bird, while “Can’t Quit” folds AKEEM’s spoken word into a soulful bruk rhythm. From there, “Seasons”, “Joys” and “For You” lean further into bossa, with Achanté’s vocals giving the arrangements a softer centre. Norwegian saxophonist Bror Havnes appears on the short “Interlude” and returns for “One”, where the group closes with a nod towards jungle and drum & bass. It’s this movement between live interplay and club instincts that gives Part 1 its immense character. First Word Records, with its long-running connection to jazz, soul and hip-hop, feels like a natural home for a project built around those same crossings. Available on vinyl, this is our favorite reentré project.

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After turning heads globally with full-length projects like Susuma and Ye Ankasa | We Ourselves, the Berlin-based outfit Jembaa Groove is entering a fresh chapter. Founders Yannick Nolting and Eric Owusu have been championing contemporary Afro-jazz, and now they return to Agogo Records with the Be A Lover EP. For this latest release, they consciously stripped back their usual seven-piece live ensemble to focus strictly on a collaborative studio experience. Expanding their sound beyond, they tapped directly into the Lagos music scene. The result is a soulful Afrofusion project. It was born out of a chance meeting with Nigerian highlife revivalists The Cavemen at the 2023 Supersonic Jazz Festival in Amsterdam.

The music reflects this diasporic network, offering a seamless blend of organic percussion, horns, and steady grooves. The musical brothers essentially stepped in to co-produce most of the tracklist. They take center stage with traditional vocals on the highlife cut "Obi." Across the remaining songs, an impressive cast of international talent joins the fold. East London-based Azekel lends his R&B-leaning voice to the opener "No Pain No Gain." Lagos artist Tim Lyre then delivers the title track's message to choose love over fighting. To close things out, Malian icon Fatoumata Diawara trades vocal lines with Owusu on the rhythmic closer "Waka." The band is currently gearing up for a 2026 tour featuring Ghanaian multi-instrumentalist Kwame Yeboah. Together, they prove that musical magic happens when cultures freely collide. Available on vinyl.

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Argento is a new project from composer and producer David August, whose work has moved between club music, live instrumentation and more experimental forms over the years. With Miraggi, released by Music From Memory, he turns towards the Mediterranean and the places that shaped his connection to Italy. Written between Berlin and the Tuscan coast, the album draws on Italian library music from the 1970s and ’80s, with traces of jazz fusion and Balearic music sitting further in the background. The result is less about recreating a particular era than building a sense of place. Synths, electronic textures, environmental recordings and acoustic percussion all have their own space.

Percussionist Lorenzo Setti becomes an important part of that process, bringing a more physical element to August’s arrangements through improvisation and co-writing. Across tracks such as “Vento Del Sud”, “Sabbia Su Sabbia” and “Ritmi Marini”, rhythms move gently beneath synth lines and small environmental details, giving the album a sense of motion without pushing it towards the dancefloor. The title Miraggi points to something equally elusive: a place remembered, imagined or perhaps never fully experienced. It makes sense for an album that sits somewhere between soundtrack, daydream and travel memory, where the sea and landscape are less subjects than part of the music itself. Available on vinyl.

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Brussels-based talent Bass Toast has steadily become a trusted fixture in the underground. As a long-standing Kiosk Radio resident, and co-founder of Cosmic Breeze Records, his work moves between the lineage of New York house, broken beat and soul, with a clear interest in what happens when club music is allowed to breathe outside the dancefloor. On From Above, released by Cosmic Breeze Records, those ideas take shape across six tracks that shift mood without losing their centre.

The record unfolds as an engaging journey of tension and release. Things kick off with "African Girl," utilizing a subtle groove to ease you in before the title track pivots into a Latin-influenced excursion. The A-side eventually wraps up on "Stance," where jazz drumming and intricate patterns reward repeat spins. Flipping the wax reveals a shift in weight. Cuts like "Chucho" and "Watch And Remember" propel the momentum forward, yet they never abandon the core thread anchoring the project. Finally, "Childhood Memories" steps in to cool the room down, closing out the trip with pure elegance as per usual in his work. Available on Bandcamp.

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Glasgow-based multi-instrumentalist Liam Shortall is stepping into bold new territory under his corto.alto moniker. Raised on a steady diet of ska, blues, and big band music, he originally cut his teeth playing the trombone and mastering his jazz chops. Following the massive success of his Mercury Prize-nominated debut album Bad With Names (New Soil & Bridge The Gap, 2023), he is now pushing his creative boundaries even further. Releasing via the legendary Ninja Tune imprint, his upcoming project, SOME SMALL FORTUNE, finds him embracing collaboration over limitation. The record officially drops this friday capturing a young producer who is fully willing to explore the unknown.

Instead of tightly controlling every element of the production, Shortall opted to open his studio doors. SOME SMALL FORTUNE features an expansive roster of guest vocalists, including Mick Jenkins, anaiis, Oscar Jerome, Jacob Alon, and BINA. These voices merge seamlessly with his core crew of Scottish heavyweights, such as drummer Graham Costello and pianist Fergus McCreadie. The resulting tracks blend jazz instrumentation with heavy electronic beats and indie pop sensibilities. It is an unpredictably exciting collage of sound that proves he is entering an entirely different musical world. Available on vinyl.

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